Silly School Crush
by Robopirate
Summary: It's been two months since Zim left Earth to go serve back in Foodcourtia and now he's back. Dib is starting to feel differently towards the Irken Invader though. ZaDR. Dib and Zim are the same age as in the series. Rated T for some language.
1. Prologue

_A/N: This is my first fanfiction and it takes place twomonths after the series ends. So basically Zim and Dib are the same age, same grade ect. So there won't be any drastic differences about them. Also don't expect extreme romance because they're only kids. This is ZADR too so if you don't like that pairing then please don't read this._

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It had been two months. Some of the LONGEST months of Dib's short life.

Zim had left to go work back at Foodcourtia. Of course mistook it as more training from The Tallest to become the greatest invader ever.

Dib of course was glad to see him go and let him leave without a second thought. For a few days afterwards he felt strong emotions of pride and glee, knowing he had saved the world from its ultimate destruction. But after a week or two all he could think about was Zim. He suspected that his leaving was just another elaborate plot to take over the world. And that he would come back with the whole Armada trailing behind him. He contacted Dark Booty and other members of the Swollen Eye until they got so annoyed they kicked him out of the group. Then his mind circled around Zim. Constant thoughts about when, or if, he would return. Dib even became so wrapped up in his obsession that he waited on his roof every night with a telescope for Zim's return. But suddenly one day, a strange feeling over took him when he started to ponder over what Zim could be planning.

He felt sad.

The emotion hit him like a ton of bricks. Sad? Why sad? He despised Zim. He despised Zim like Gaz despised him.

Well, the one person who didn't tease him was gone. Figuring it was nothing he pushed the emotion aside and continued on up until the time that Zim came back.

Within that time nothing extreme happened. He, out of habit, went to the location that Zim's house used to be and examined it. He sent some signals out from his computer to try to find either Gir or Zim's ship but alas, both had been deactivated. Dib sat in Tak's old ship trying to learn the controls and studying the Irken language.

Funny that after a year, maybe more, of hacking into Zim's computer, spying on him in his home and using some of his equipment he still couldn't understand the Irken language.

Zim on the other hand, had gotten so excited about going back to 'train' for his Tallest that he switched his ship into overdrive and lost control of the ship. Crashing himself into one of the snack holds of mothership. Donuts and other various sweets floated out into space and sent many unexpecting Irken crashing into one another trying to shake the bags of chips and popcorn from their windshields.

Gir , being himself, cheered as he watched the food float all over while Zim contacted his Tallest to inform him that he was there. They weren't as enthusiastic as he was about that fact. So Zim went to serving at Foodcourtia. When the infamous Skoodge came up to him one fateful time he was serving he decided to start up some friendly conversation.

"_Oh hey Zim." Skoodge said with a smile on his face. "It's been awhile since I last saw you, eh?"_

"_Oh yes, yes. It has been awhile hasn't it? You gonna order or what?" Zim said with a bored expression plastered in his face._

"_So I guess the fact that you're back here is because you managed to invade and conquer that...planet…Earth?" He asked the envious and embarrassed 'Invader'._

"_No. The Tallest pulled me back for training before I could put my plans into action." Zim said, starting to get rather annoyed._

"_Oh…Well I was the first to take over the planet I was assigned out of all the chosen invaders." Skoodge stated with a proud smile on his face._

_At this point Zim snapped. "WELL I AM GOING TO BE THE GREATEST INVADER TO EVER OF EXISTED." He shouted causing a scene and thrusting Skoodge's food at him. "I AM ZIM!!!" He shouted climbing onto the counter, a new found determination flowing through his veins. He let out his traditional cackle as Skoodge backed away from the psychotic Irken standing on the serving counter._

Not too long after THAT he wanted to be the best at serving the food and he brought some heavy machinery to his dull job. Destroying about half of Foodcourtia in the process of trying to make fries. That was the last straw for The Tallest. They slammed Zim back into his Voot cruiser, threw Gir back into his arms, set the ship to overdrive and sent him straight back to Earth.

He ended up in the same area as before and planted his house in the same lot. And he walked out of his door to a flabbergasted Dib.

The typical greeting was given.

"Dib-human" Zim sneered, tugging on Gir's leash.

"Zim!" Dib said with determination, pointing at the alien who stood on the sidewalk.

Thus leading us to today.


	2. Nosebleed

_A/N. This is chapter 2 of SSC and well… I'm having some trouble putting the story on paper… So expect some long gaps between each chapter… I'd really appreciate some helpful tips, ect. Ect._

_--_

Dib stared in disbelief at the alien standing in front of him. His jaw was clenched and he was pretty sure he looked determined. He couldn't tell. He could only feel the butterflies flitting about in his stomach that made him want to go and hide.

"Hello Dib-Human." Zim said tugging back Gir as he happily tried to hug Dib. "I suspect you didn't expect the Almighty Zim to return did you?" a smirk now tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Dib's eyes narrowed as he felt the butterflies disappear. "No. I thought your Tallest, or whatever they're called, would keep you to 'train' for a lot longer than two months." He said putting his hands into the pockets of his trench coat.

"Hmph. I don't have time for this." Zim snorted, turning back towards his door. "Come along, Gir. We've got to work on our latest plan for Earth's destruction!" He said dragging his green pal back through the door to his house, leaving Dib standing alone outside.

'What was that?!' Dib thought turning and heading back to his own house. 'Why--? What--?' he couldn't begin to wrap his mind around what had just happened with Zim. The butterflies in his stomach came as a complete shock to him.

A cold breeze whipped through the air and Dib shivered, wrapping his long coat around him. Fall was approaching quickly now that he thought about it. Soon it'd be Halloween again… 'Oh god… Halloween.' He shudder again partially because of the cold, but mostly because memories of last year's Halloween came flooding back to him.

'Those… Horrible visions…' he thought. 'At least Zim came with me… If it hadn't been for him I would probably still be trapped in that horrible nightmare…' A slight blush invaded Dib's cheeks as he went through the thoughts of last year's Halloween.

He remembered how Zim had come to save him when he was strapped down on the pedestal.

_Zim. _

The blush on his cheeks grew stronger at that thought.

'He saved me… N-now that I think about it…' Dib felt the butterflies return and he brought his thoughts to other topics, like his next scheme to spy on Zim. Maybe he could get Gir to place another camera in his house… Hopefully this time in his lab.

While he was lost in his scheming he covered more ground than he realized and ended up walking straight into the door to his house.

"OW." He cried, placing his hands on his throbbing nose. Pulling one hand back he saw a tiny drop of blood and saw that he had a slight nosebleed. Suddenly his dad opened the door.

"Hi dad." Dib said focusing more on getting a tissue than on his dad.

"Hello son!" Dr. Membrane said enthusiastically as his son squeezed by him and ran to the bathroom. Dr. Membrane sighed. "My poor, insane son." He said placing the tips of his fingers on his temples.

--

Zim slammed the door to his base and stood there for a moment. "Hmph. Come on Gir. We must hurry and contact The Tallest to inform them that we are here." He said marching to the toilet in the middle of his kitchen.

"YAAAY." Gir cheered as they descended to the oh so familiar underground lab of Zim's base.

When they reached the bottom Gir discarded his doggie disguise and proceeded to run around the lab shouting "I'm naked!"

"Yes, yes Gir. We know." Zim said distractedly as he approached his giant computer and started to type something in Irken. The massive computer screen went fuzzy and Zim stood at attention wait for his Tallest to appear on screen.

As the screen cleared and the two purple and red figures began to come into perspective, Zim felt a wide grin spread across his face. "MY TALLEST! I HAVE ARRIVED AT THE…filthy…planet Earth." He shouted to them. The red Tallest spoke up as the purple Tallest yelled at people on the computers behind them. "Yes Zim. That's great. Uh… What's going on?" he asked staring at the scene behind Zim.

"Enh?" Zim asked turning around, only to see that Gir had gotten into some deadly chemicals and made some of his devices go haywire. "AH. GIR. NO! DON'T COMBINE THO-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. AH-AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" The Tallest watched as Zim's transmission was once again cut off by some sort of explosion. "At least he's gone." Said the purple Tallest taking a break from yelling at the Irken at the computers.

Back at Zim's base all was chaos. Several experiments of Zim's had gotten loose in the explosion and were now running amok. Zim ran around frantically trying to get everything under control again so he could proceed with his plans. "COMPUTER. Run repairs on the base. We need this place up and running again so I can start on my GREATEST PLAN EVER." Zim shouted to the unwilling machine.

After a few hours of chasing all the loose experiments around the base and barely succeeding in putting them back in their tanks, Zim went back upstairs exhausted where Gir had snuck away and was now watching the scary monkey show. Zim sighed heavily as he sat down. "What a day." He exclaimed in a breathy voice.

"Ya know, Master… Dib isn't THAT bad… I like him." Said Gir not taking his eyes away from the t.v.

Zim just gave him a puzzled expression and stood up. "Enh? Whatever." He said heading towards the elevator under the table. "COMPUTER. Take me to my quarters." He said stretching. When the computer decided to comply and the elevator arrived Zim stepped on and stood there waiting for it to reach his room.

But what Gir had said upstairs still rang in his head.

_Dib isn't THAT bad…_


	3. Dodgeball

_A/N: Thank you for the reviews! It's really helping me to be motivated. I shall continue to write for this story UNTIL FINISHED! And being the noob that I am I don't exactly know how to reply so please don't expect a response. :)_

Dib awoke the next morning to the sun glaring down at him through his window. He sat up, groping for his glasses. Once he managed to search them out he proceeded to get dressed and head down stairs for breakfast.

Gaz sat at the table playing her GameSlave as usual. The dark rings under her eyes indicated to him that she stayed up all night playing it. Sighing at his sisters obsession, he pulled out a chair from the table and sat there fixing himself a bowl of cereal.

"Hey Gaz." He said trying to get her attention.

"What do you want? I'm TRYING to play my game." She replied, the anger obvious in her voice.

"I just wanted to let you know that Zim came back." Dib said a smile pulling the edge of his mouth.

"So?"

"So?! This means that he's gonna try to take over the world again!! I gotta save the--" Gaz cut him off, pausing her game to look up at him with glaring eyes.

"Your voice makes me angry." She said with a low growl.

Dib just sighed again and stopped talking. He knew he wouldn't get anywhere with her so he just sat there eating his cereal. When he finally finished he put his bowl in the sink and left the house, heading for skool.

He arrived just in time so he didn't provoke the wrath of Ms. Bitters. That was the last this that he wanted today.

"Class." Ms. Bitters said in a harsh tone, "Zim has decided to return to this wretched skool."

As she said that Zim walked through the door and took his same seat as before. Before sitting though he looked at the class and said, "Yes I shall be rejoining you worm-babies in your feeble educational program." He was going to say more but he caught the glare Ms. Bitters tossed him out of the corner of his eye.

Clearing his throat he sat down and stared forwards as Ms. Bitters lectured them on how they would all amount to nothing in the future. Dib just stared at Zim from across the room, mouth slightly agape. He felt a little light-hearted but forced that emotion aside and pulled out a notebook. He flipped to the nearest open page and started scribbling down plans to stop him.

When the bell for class to end and to go to lunch Dib stared down at his work and realized he used over three pages in his notebook. He blinked and closed it, following all the other students to the cafeteria.

After waiting in line to get his lunch (Which he wasn't even sure was food or not.) he headed towards the table that Gaz sat at. Staring down at his lunch in disgust he poked it with his fork and then put some in his mouth. It tasted horrible. Like some dirty sock that had been forgotten at the bottom of a hamper. He forced it down and then poked it for the rest of lunch.

While doing this he was also staring at the green boy who had no ears. He glared as he watched him pick up his fork and examine the food. With a questionable look on his face, Zim seemed to study the food as if it was another being. Only half way through lunch did he notice the big-headed kid glaring at him.

'Hmph… The Dib-human.' Zim thought angrily to himself as he gave a cold glare back.

Once the 'eating' part of lunch was over, all the children piled into the schoolyard for recess.

Dib approached Zim and they both stared at each other in hatred. Of course, Dib's was only partial hatred. They pressed their foreheads together as they used to and Dib said in a cold voice,

"I'm going to catch you Zim. And when I do, I'll finally get the respect I deserve around here."

"Hah. Defeating Zim shall not be so easy this time. Remember. I've had training."

'Oh yeah. The _training_.' Dib thought to himself sarcastically.

"Listen." He said, jabbing a finger into the aliens chest. "It doesn't matter what kind of training you've had Zim, I WILL get you."

Zim pulled his head away and stood straight up with his eyes narrowed and a slight frown on his mouth.

"You shall never defeat Zim!" He cried at Dib. "NEVER."

It was just then that Dib was vaguely aware of that same light-headedness from earlier. It was stronger than before and he couldn't force it away no matter how he tried to.

'Why did these feelings keep coming on whenever Zim was nearby?!' Dib screamed in his head. 'It's not like…. I…. Ya' know… Like him or anything… He's my arch nemesis!! I can't like him like that… Can I?' The whole time he was pondering this thought he didn't hear the child call out to him to watch out.

Then a dodge ball struck him in the back of the. His vision blacked out and he fell forwards. Straight onto Zim. The unsuspecting alien didn't have time to react, it all happened so quickly. Dib fell on top of Zim, his head landing on the aliens chest.

With his vision still gone for the moment, Dib brought himself to his hands and knees. Once his vision returned he saw a shocked, red and green alien beneath him. That light-headed feeling from earlier was now in full force. He felt his face redden immediately and his brain couldn't process. After a few seconds Dib came to his sense and started getting off of the alien. Before he could Zim placed his hand on Dib's chest, increasing the redness on the boy's face, and shoved him off.

"Keep your hands off of Zim." He said standing and brushing himself off.

As Zim marched back to class, Dib merely laid on the asphalt thinking about what just happened. He… Zim… On top… Dodge ball… He lost in a completely different world.

Only after an extremely cold gust of wind blew did he come back to this world. He sat up straight and noticed no one else around. Getting up as fast as he could he practically flew back to Ms. Bitters class. But he still unfortunately, was late and made her extremely angry. Thus he had to endure a lecture about how they would all die until the end of the day.


	4. Plant

_A/N: Thank you yet again for the reviews. It truly is helping me keep going with this story. And I was having a pretty bad day today, so it's nice to look at some of the reviews (old+new) and know that someone appreciates me work. :D Thank you!! And I shall continue posting chapters for you to read and, hopefully, enjoy. And yes, this chapter will be a little shorter than the others. I try to make most of them the same length but this one just came out the smallest so far._

It had been a week since the dodge ball incident happened and since then, Zim had been twice as cold to Dib. And by twice as cold it means Zim refused to acknowledge his existence. Whenever Dib went to confront Zim about his next plan, or even to ask why he wasn't talking to him. Zim would simply continue with his work or start talking to the nearest living being.

At one point in Skool Dib was walking to the bathroom when he saw Zim in the hallway. He decided that this would be the best time to confront him because no one was around.

"Zim. Why are you ignoring me?" Dib asked standing infront of the invader.

The alien had a glazed look in his eyes and he turned his head towards a potted plant sitting next to one of the class room doors.

"Zim??" Dib asked, watching as he walked over to the plant and proceeded to talk to it.

He stared in awe as Zim asked it about recent events, latest gossip. Even the weather. After about 10 minutes of this Dib just shook his head and went back to class. Apparently Zim was trying to ignore him so much he would start conversations with plants. He slammed his head on his desk and groaned realizing that this ran deeper than just him being angry with him. Even Dib knew that Zim knew plants couldn't converse with people.

'Why?.... What the fuck did I even DO?' Dib thought, surprised at the curse that popped up among his thoughts.

When Ms. Bitters was finally done teaching them about… Who knows what. Dib grabbed his things and continued outside the Skool before he finally realized something.

Zim didn't come back from his 'conversation' with the plant. Infact, Dib hadn't seen him since then.

'Maybe he went home to work on his latest evil plot.' Dib thought. 'I should probably go and figure out what it is so he won't destroy humanity.' He started sprinting in the direction of the glowing house, and was halfway there when he finally admitted to himself that this was just an excuse to figure out why Zim was ignoring him.

The Invader sat in his lab furiously mixing explosive chemicals with each other just to make things blow up. He glared as he dropped a sizzling blue mixture into a test tube full of deadly purple liquid.

He smirked as he watched it started to smoke and bubble. He quickly pulled down his goggles and placed the concoction into a glass case. He opened a hole in the top and poured down some more of the blue liquid and laughed as it exploded.

Turning to do this again he realized he had used up all of his chemicals. Zim's eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth as hard as he could. He turned back to the table and slammed his gloved fists down onto it. Then those horrid words echoed back into his head.

_Dib isn't THAT bad…_

He put his hands on his head and let out a ferocious scream.

"YES. HE IS THAT BAD. HE IS. GUUH. I SHOULD JUST KILL HIM RIGHT NOW. I HAVE THE EQUIPMENT." He started rampaging through his lab yelling and breaking things. He never took off his disguise after the plant incident so now his wig was falling off of his head and one of his contacts had fallen out when he ripped off his goggles.

Eventually making his way back to the table he started at he brought his fists down even harder than before and smashed the table in half. There was an explosion of wood as his makeshift storage unit was destroyed. This upset him to the point of standing there seething. He felt moisture start to fill his eyes as he went about fixing his wig and placing his contact back into his eye.

"He is that bad… He is…" he said quietly, rubbing away the moisture from his eyes and feeling a new wave of anger hit him.

Mumbling and quietly whimpering to himself he went upstairs to devour some waffles. This was how he always took out his anger.

When the elevator reached the upstairs he started shouting.

"GIR. I DEMAND WAFFLES." The invader yelled sitting at the table.

Gir squealed with joy and ran to the kitchen to start making them. His first batch had various kitchen objects coming out of them but this didn't stop the alien from tearing through them.

Around 7 plates later Zim was calm enough to not destroy anything. He also felt quite sick. "No more waffles Gir. I feel sick." He stated getting up from his chair and going into the elevator. On his way back down to the lab he thought about Dib. The only thought that came to his mind… "Filthy worm-baby."

Gir stood there screaming and freaking out for atleast 5 minutes before he finally just ate the last plate himself. Before he could actually finish it though, someone knocked on the door. Gir ran up to the door with a waffle half in his mouth and opened it only to see a certain Dib-Human standing there.


	5. Feeling sick

A/N: School is EVIL. Essays are EVIL. Tests are EVIL. Writers block is EVIL.

--

Dib stood in the doorway staring down at the little robot wolfing down a waffle in front of him. He shifted his gaze past him and gazed around the house. It was exactly the same as before. Except the alien wasn't there. 'He must of gone to his lab…' Dib thought, feeling his spirits droop.

"HI DIB." Yelled Gir, waving and hugging him.

"Hey Gir." Dib said looking down. "Do you know where Zim is?" he asked earnestly.

"He went down to his lab." Gir stated taking his arms away from the human and backing up a step.

"Okay. Could I go see him?" Dib asked taking a step forwards into the familiar house. 'I'm sure he won't be able to ignore me there… I hope.'

"Yes. But master is angry." Said Gir staring through Dib. This lasted for 6 seconds before Gir yelled, "HAVE FUN." And ran off to get into his dog suit.

Dib stood there for a minute before walking to the toilet that was placed in the middle of the kitchen. Standing on it he pulled the rope handle hanging next to it and descended downwards. While waiting for the elevator to reach the lab he thought about how he might approach Zim. Unfortunately, he hadn't come up with anything by the time that he reached the lab.

Stepping out of the elevator, he looked around at the lab to see it as an utter disaster. Things were broken and leaking all over the place. Some things were burning through the machines they had spilled on. He saw a smashed table and beakers, test tubes and cylinders scattered and broken in the general area. Finally he turned his head to look at the giant T.V he had at the end of the room. There he saw an Irken invader, disguise discarded lying on the ground next to him. The aliens hands were gripping his head in frustration and he heard some mumbling he couldn't understand, most likely in his native language.

"Z…….Zim?" Dib asked hesitantly. He instantly regretted saying anything because he once again realized, he didn't know what to say.

All he got in response was a moan and then Zim placed his head, face down, on the elaborate device in front of him.

Dib stood up straight and started walking towards Zim, ready to face him. "Zim. Why are you ignoring me? What did I do?" he felt anger rising in his chest and his eyes narrowed.

Getting no response he started towards the alien faster, not stopping until he reached his side. "ZIM." He said with dominance in his voice.

The alien raised his head and looked straight on. Dib noticed that he looked positively sick. Feeling the anger melt away at the sight of him, he placed a hand on Zim's back and stared at him. "Zim are you okay?" Now concern was obvious in his voice as Zim turned his head slowly towards the human and looked him in the eyes.

Zim merely groaned a little and shook his head slowly. His eyes barely narrowed in an angry expression and he opened his mouth to speak. "Don't touch Zim." He said with no expression in his voice.

Dib immediately took his hand off of the Irken's back and put it at his side. "Zim. Why are you ignoring me?" Dib said in a quiet voice.

Zim straightened up at that and he glared at the human as if he had never felt sick. "The almighty Zim does not need to explain himself to you! Now be gone filthy Dib-human! I've got planning to attend to!!" He shouted at the shocked human in front of him. He turned and did his traditional march over to the other side of the computer board and started shouting commands at the computer. "COMPUTER. Start cleaning this mess and get the human out of here! I MUST PLAN."

Dib stared in disbelief at his as the computer arm came down and grabbed the back of his trench coat. He mentally slapped himself for ever thinking of caring about the invader and he turned his head to yell at Zim "I WILL figure out your plan, Zim! I WILL." The computer threw him into the elevator shortly after and had him sent to the front walk.

Turning, Dib glared at the glowing house and snorted. He turned away and stuffed his hands into his pockets, sulking all the way home.

--

Zim stood standing straight until he was sure the human couldn't see him and then his sick expression returned to his face and he went down on his knees. He will never eat waffles again. The invader shuddered at the thought of ever eating another waffle. Then he thought back to the scene with Dib.

"He actually cared for me." Zim said quietly to himself. "That's a first."

He stared around his lab and watched the computer clean up the mess he had made when he went on his tantrum. He sighed thinking of how disappointed the Tallest would be if they heard of this. He decided to just forget about it. But now TWO phrases danced through his head together.

_Dib isn't THAT bad._

_Zim are you okay?_

He clenched his jaw and his hands balled into fists as he thought of these. He felt as if he was being haunted by everything related to Dib.

'He must be getting to me. He's breaking through my defenses and trying to spot my weakness! THAT FILTHY WORM-BABY. NO ONE GETS THROUGH TO ZIM.' He mentally yelled, standing up with more determination than ever to destroy Earth once and for all.

'But. Halloween is coming up soon. In an Earth week, I believe? I must prepare for the zombie-children who will come to get my candy…' he thought, turning and staring to write elaborate plans to stop the invasion.

Just then he felt his stomach lurch and he felt the sickness coming back to him. "GIR. FETCH ME THE BUCKET." He said as Gir ran down to the lab screaming with joy.


	6. Please read the Author's Note

_A/N: This is mainly an "Author's Note" chapter. Full of important information and such._

_Oh thy cruel fate. It has forsaken me by bringing upon a most unwanted illness. Yeah I'm sick. Curse cold and flu season and all of its evil colds and flues. Updates should be expected to be longer spaced than usual. :| Expect a week or so. I might even just take a break from writing this all together until I get better. This cold is not holding back on me at all._

_My illness fatigues me. Farewell. (This chapter was a burden to write. It's not even long.)_

_--_

Zim walked over to the window and got to work boarding it up. It was Halloween, and Zim had stayed home from Skool preparing for the zombie children. When he finished with that window he moved to the front door and proceeded with the same operation.

Gir was, of course, as excited as ever and was running around in his dog suit screaming with joy.

"GIR. Hand me that box of nails! We must be prepared this year!" Shouted Zim throwing an empty box of nails to the ground and pointing to one on the kitchen table.

Gir easily complied with him and ran over to the table, grabbed the nails and walked back to his impatient master. Handing him the nails he gave him a wide grin and shot a muffin out of his head.

"Thank you Gir." Zim replied snatching the nails away from him and finishing the job at hand.

Stepping back to the center of the room he surveyed his work and saw he had successfully covered all of the windows and doors with a heavy coating of boards and nails. "ALRIGHT. GIR. TO THE LAB. We must stay secluded until this night is over." The alien marched over to the toilet and pulled the rope.

Once in the lab, Zim proceeded to contact his tallest to let them know that he was secure.

--

Dib sat in his room watching the video camera he had Gir place in Zim's lab. He wanted to try to get proof that Zim was an alien again. He moved his mouse over to the record button and then stopped before he clicked. Staring at the screen he decided not to and proceeded to watch a 3 hour conversation between Zim and his Tallest.

Once it was over Dib realized that Zim wasn't going to do anything else and he left his room. He decided to sit on his roof and use his telescope to stare at the stars.

He thought about the day he caught the Irken transmission and smiled. He was glad that Zim had been sent to Earth. He was the only one who knew that Dib wasn't actually crazy.

Sighing, he leaned back on the roof and stared at the Halloween moon just listening to all the children go from door to door yelling trick-or-treat.

'I wonder how Zim is doing…' Dib contemplated this until he fell asleep on the roof.


	7. Soup

_A/N: Cold mainly out of my system, I step forth to once again post SSC! Just for a treat because I haven't updated in a while I'm going to post 2 chapters ON THE SAME DAY! How's that suitin' ya?_

_--_

Halloween came and then went, and now it was November. The leaves were mainly off the trees and frost weren't uncommon. Unfortunately, neither was the flu. Dib was stuck in bed with a bad fever and a raspy cough.

Moaning, Dib turned onto his side and looked out the window in distress. 'Never again am I letting myself fall asleep on the roof… NEVER.' This though was followed by a hideous serious of coughs that left the boy lying as his lungs ached.

He watched some of the last leaves on trees sway in the breeze and fall to the ground before getting bored and turning over, slowly, to his computer. Pushing a button, a screen showing Zim's lab popped up. Dib started to press the arrow keys on his computer and the camera turned according to which key.

"Is that… -cough- Gi –cough cough cough- r?" Dib tried to speak aloud.

Shortly after that, Dr. Membrane marched into Dib's room holding a steaming bowl of soup. Dib quickly closed the screen and switched off the computer.

"Hi dad…" He spoke softly, so as not to provoke more coughing fits.

"Hello son. I brought you this soup, in hopes it would make you feel better." Dr. Membrane spoke as he placed the soup on the table next to Dib's bed.

"Thanks dad…" Dib said, turning to stare at the steam rising from the bowl.

He grabbed the bowl and placed it on his lap and began to slowly eat it. It tasted absolutely awful. His dad soon walked out of the room and Dib placed the bowl back on the bedside table. In all honesty he didn't feel like eating that monstrosity, but just so his father wouldn't feel bad he decided to eat some anyway.

He ignored the sick feeling in his stomach and once again grabbed the bowl and hit the on button for his computer. He sipped some more of the soup as he waited for it to turn on. The moment it did he quickly opened the camera stream and turned it back to Gir.

He watched as the little robot pressed buttons all over the control panel. Though, to Dib, it didn't seem as if he was hitting them at random. It was like he actually had a purpose, which sort of shocked Dib, because Gir had to be the most impaired robot he had ever met.

He watched in amazement as the robot went around pushing buttons and typing in codes. Dib actually managed to convince himself that the robot was only dumb when Zim was around. But then a monkey popped up on the screen and he leaned back.

Of course. He just wanted to watch the scary monkey show.

--

A few hours later, Dib was bored out of his mind and feeling a little better. He decided to get up and do something. Walking down the stairs he threw on his trench coat and snuck out the front door.

At first he wandered around without a purpose before he decided to stalk Zim. He walked to the Skool and hid in one of the bushes outside of the building, waiting for it to be over. He was only there for 5 minutes before the bell rang. Watching as the green kid stepped out of the door he felt his muscles tense. Getting ready to start following him, he got onto his knees.

He slowly followed the Irken to the city, in which he proceeded to head to the super market.

--

Zim stood there looking at different broths and meats before finally deciding on what to get.

'I shall use this trick to get through the worm-baby's defenses. And show him I am not so easily broken through!!' Zim thought to himself, heading over to the vegetables. He snatched a handful of everything and walked to the checkout with arms full of food.

After spending all of his moneyz on the food he made his way back to his glowing home. He hobbled his way past the guard gnomes and called out Gir to help him grab the groceries. The robot came outside quickly and grabbed a falling bag shouting.

Zim ignored him as he shouted about the meaningless things he did and walked to the kitchen, still unknowing to the boy in the trench coat that followed him. Placing everything on the table he turned to grab some knives and pots as the bags fell over the table, spilling their contents onto the table.

Throwing on gloves and goggles, Zim put some water in a pot and put that on the stove turning it up to high.

"ALL RIGHT GIR. LET US PREPARE TO MAKE WHAT THESE HUMANS CALL… Soup."

"YES, SIR." Yelled Gir, saluting and his eyes going red. They soon turned back to normal as he grabbed some celery and carrots to begin chopping them up.

Zim was trying to figure out how to make the soup when he saw Gir throw in all of the chopped vegetables. Peeking over the pot he watched as they floated up and down in the boiling water.

"Hmm…. Now what to do?" He thought turning to some of the chicken he bought. He grabbed it and started to rip some of the meat off of it and placed it on the cutting board.

Starting to chop it into cubes he thought he was doing well when suddenly the knife hit his finger.

"FUCK." He yelled pulling back his finger and watching some blood escape the cut. "GIR. FETCH ME THE MEDICAL KIT." He demanded to his little robot.

The machine obliged and grabbed the red box that was in a cabinet. He brought it over to the table and watched as his master placed a band aid over the wound. "Back to work!" he stated as he turned back to the chicken.

As he was trying to figure out what to do next the water in the pot commenced in boiling over and spilling all over the stove top.

Zim jumped at the sound and quickly went to fixing it. Back to square one. It took him several hours to get it right, but once Zim finally got the recipe right he placed the soup in a bowl and covered it with a lid. "TO THE HUMANS HOUSE." Zim shouted.


	8. Dream

_A/N: Like I promised. The second chapter of the same day._

_--_

Dib watched through the window as the Irken struggled to make soup. He laughed at all the times that something went wrong and by the time that he got it, the sun was setting.

Sitting back from the window Dib stared at the sky with a dazed look on his face. He had spent to much time moving and wasn't feeling too well. Getting to his knees to leave, he heard the Irken call,

"TO THE HUMAN'S HOUSE." And he went into a frenzy.

Dib's mind was scrambled as he attempted to sneak down the side of the alien's house. The wires and pipes made it increasingly difficult and Dib spent most of the time climbing up and over, or clawing his way under them.

By the time he made it to where the gnomes were, he was exhausted and panting. The fact he was sick did not help him at all. Feeling his fever coming on, Dib swayed with a cold breeze that blew by. Upon breathing out he saw his breath and fumbled forwards.

"Gotta…. –cough- get home….." He mumbled, finally reaching the walk that lead to Zim's door. He looked out at the sidewalk and sighed. It felt as if his feet were cement and the sidewalk was a million miles away.

Trudging forwards he stumbled as he heard the knob to the door turn and Zim shout something to Gir. He heard the robots squeals of joy and more shouting as the door slightly opened.

Dib stumbled faster and faster until his head pounded from his fever and he collapsed in the middle of the street outside of Zim's home.

His vision swayed in and out before he finally fell victim to the cold asphalt and passed out.

--

Zim grabbed the pot and headed towards the door, just starting to turn the handle. Suddenly he stopped and turned his head back towards Gir and yelled something to his companion.

"GIR. Turn on security mode until I get back." Turning back to the door he heard the robot start shouting and dancing in joy, throwing around his little moose toy.

Sighing to himself, Zim started to think, 'I shall merely bring this concoction to the human and come home.' But as he thought that he felt his green skin turn a light shade of red. 'HE IS GETTING TO ME. I MUST HARDEN MY DEFENSES.' Zim immediately shouted to himself sending the blush crawling back to where it came from.

He opened the door more and stepped out onto the walk and looked out infront of him. He saw a small black figure lying in the street and quickly called Gir to place the soup back on the stove while he went to investigate.

Gir was, of course, willing to do so and he screamed with more happiness.

Zim walked quickly over to the figure in the street with only one thought going through his head.

_Dib._

He felt the blush coming back again and he began to feel light headed but he ignored it and continued walked towards the person in the street. Once he got there he leaned down to examine it and touched the shoulder of them.

It was still warm so that means that the person was still alive. Quickly flipping them over he gasped as he saw the black figure lying in the street really was Dib. He lifted the boys head up and tried to get a good grip on him.

He carried the limp body through his door and placed it onto the couch. Dib was breathing very heavily at this point.

_Zim are you okay?_

'Yes. I'm fine. Are you okay, though?!' Zim thought wearily as he stared at the boys pale face. Touching his hand to his forehead, he felt it was rather hot and panicked. He ran over the sink and held a towel under it as he let cold water soak the towel and burn his bare hand.

He ignore his own burning pain as he placed the cold cloth on the human's forehead and went to grab a blanket for him. He threw the thickest quilt he had over the boy and propped his head up with a pillow from the couch.

He felt his squeedily-spooch slow down with the boy's breathing. Dragging out a chair from the kitchen, Zim sat down in front of the couch and watched the boy.

After awhile he felt his eyes being to droop and he was soon fast asleep.

--

Dib was currently asleep and having a strange dream.

He was hanging on the edge of a cliff and the rock he was holding onto was strangely cold. He was dangling above a huge, burning crevice when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

It was Zim.

Suddenly Zim dragged him up off of the cliff and vanished. He felt relief and a strange sadness as he stood there alone above the cliff. He started walking forwards when a path suddenly appeard infront of him.

Following the path he appeared in a the middle of a clearing which was in the middle of a dense forests.

'That's weird… I don't remember passing any trees… Where's the path?' Dib thought looking down. After trying to figure this out his gaze managed to shift to the sky in which he gasped.

He stared out onto Nebulas, planets and a quasar. He couldn't do anything but stare in awe at the amazing sight of the multitude of colors mixing together in harmony in such a small sky.

The only thing that managed to get him to look away from the beautiful sight was the feeling of warmth in his hand. He looked down to see a gloved, three fingered hand and followed that arm up just to stare into 2 pink orbs. He was holding Zim's hand.

He felt the butterflies in his stomach and a blush invading his face as he watched Zim's mouth move. He strained to hear what the alien was saying, but failed to do so and merely smiled back when Zim smiled at him.

Suddenly everything went black and he realized something so huge that he felt the shock run through his unconscious body.

_He had a crush on Zim._


	9. Streetlamp

_A/N: I am very sorry but this shall be the last chapter. I've been too lazy to do this recently and I fear that if I continue making chapters, I will completely loose interest in writing this and leave without warning. As I did for the last… 2 or 3 weeks. I can honestly say that the popularity of this was higher than I expected and thank you to those who read this. I'm sorry that this is stopping so soon and without much clarification on recent happenings within the story, but I can't squeeze out another filler chapter made of fail. Enjoy this last chapter._

_--_

After Dib woke up from his dream he realized that he was in Zim's house. He stared at everything and blushed ferociously as the alien walked into the room and gave him soup. He ate it heartily and had an uneventful conversation with Gir, before being thrown out of the house and into the hands of Gaz.

He was taken home and had to face his father who had (surprisingly) noticed his absence and worried.

Weeks passed after this without another word from the alien.

--

Christmas was fast approaching and Dib's worry about Zim grew with every day. He hoped that whenever he went to the stores he would see him there observing the strange human "ritual" but to no avail. He was never there.

Trying to find an excuse to see the invader, Dib decided to go and invite him to a Christmas party that his family was holding this year. (Recently Dib's father had been acting more and more like a parental figure and was throwing all sorts of events.)

"Dad, I'm going out." Dib yelled as he pulled on his coat.

"Okay, Son. Be back before midnight!" Dr. Membrane said happily.

Dib shut the door and started to run to Zim's house.

He passed his Skool which was closed for Christmas break and swore that he saw Ms. Bitters staring through the window. He stopped for a moment after that and then he continued running to Zim's house.

--

Sitting alone in his lab, Zim was face down on his computer board. Ever since the day that Dib stayed a night he had been mumbling and sitting alone in his lab, only coming up to eat.

Gir was growing increasingly worried about his master and proceeded in entering the lab, very cautiously.

He inched towards his master and when he was finally within arms reach he spoke quietly.

"Master…?"

"Mmmmph…..Hhhhrrrrrnn….." was all that Zim could mumble back.

Gir stared down at him and water dripped from the edges of his eyes. "MASTER ARE YOU DYING?!" he yelled grabbing the edge of Zim's uniform and falling to the ground.

Raising his head slightly, Zim turned and looked at his little, naïve robot.

"No, Gir. I am NOT dying." He said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"I have merely been in a state of concentration for the last few weeks and YOU BROKE IT. But. It is okay. FOR I HAVE COME TO A CONCLUSION." The Irken stated, rising from his chair and waving a confident finger in the air.

Gir's crying immediately ceased and he began clapping with joy.

"What con…clush…on… YAY. Did you come to?!?!" Gir yelled and clapped.

Zim's confident look was immediately erased and he fell back into his seat, hands clenched on his knees and head facing downwards.

His green face turning a shade of red, Zim began to mumble his response to the robot.

"WHAT."

"Well…uuh…nnnn…"

"WHAT?!"

"Nnnnh….Dib…. Eeeeh…."

"WHAT?!?!?!?!!"

"Ee.."

"WHAT!??!!!!!?!!!!"

…

"WHAT!!?!!?!!!!!?!?!!!!?!!!!"

Before the robot could blurt out another what, the alien screeched at the top of his lungs.

"I LIKE DIB."

Zim sat there with a shocked expression on his face and Gir's face held the familiar blank stare. The alien once again faced downwards and turned a glowing shade of red. "Uh… Yeah…" Zim began twiddling his thumbs and mumbling to himself. The robot stayed with the blank expression on his face for a few moments before doing a jubilant dance and, once again, crying out in joy.

"Yay! Master likes Dib! Master likes Dib!" He repeatedly shouted this phrase in a teasing manner, unknowingly making his master quite angry with him.

"SILENCE, GIR." Zim shouted.

Gir was obedient and immediately stopped shouting. Staring at Zim with a happy face he innocently asked, "What're you gonna do noooow?"

The alien's face once again got that same shocked expression before finally admitting that he didn't know what he was going to do.

Gir was insisting that he tell Dib but Zim was refusing to admit his feelings for a human. Especially TO the human himself.

After much annoyance on Zim's part he finally decided to comply and went out in search of the worm-baby.

--

Dib took a turn and slowed to a stop underneath a lamp post. He panted and watched the steam from his breath float away and vanish. He looked around onto all of the snow that had fallen and realized how close to Christmas it was. Just a few more days.

A few more days that he might not get to spend with alien. If he was even still on earth.

Dib feared that Zim was either planning on leaving soon, or did leave earth. He mentally kicked himself when ever he thought of the fact that maybe the alien had already left. In fact, that had been the dominate thought as he was running to find his alien.

HIS alien.

Dib never thought he would use that phrase when thinking about Zim. And he never expected to like it either.

Suddenly a beam of light surrounded him and he covered his eyes as it reflected off of the clean white snow. More of those lights began appearing down the street. Dib realized that it was the street lights turning on.

It was so dark out now. If Zim was wandering around somewhere he would never find him. One word stuck out in his mind. IF.

'NO. Don't think like that! He's still here! I can feel it…' Dib thought, clenching his fists.

Just then he noticed a figure approaching him. The figure looked like…

Zim!

Dib stopped panting and watched as Zim walked into the light of the street lamp. Just then, the human felt all of his emotions for the alien come up at once and he had to get it all out.

He opened his mouth to tell Zim but the alien raised a finger, and as if he was a trained dog, Dib closed his mouth.

"Human. There is something I must inform you of. It's very important." Zim spoke in a serious tone.

"Wait. Zim. Please. There is something that I NEED to tell you or I think I'm going to explode." Dib said desperately.

The alien raised an eyebrow as he stared at the face of the human he had once hated with all of his life. He seemed so weak now. So vulnerable.

"Yes, human?" He asked.

Once again, as Dib was about to speak he was interrupted. This time by a mistletoe floating down from the top of the street lamp. He blushed as he understood what this meant and closed his mouth.

Zim looked with confusion as the plant and asked what it was.

"It's a mistletoe. People hang them up around this time of year."

"Why do you seem so embarrassed by it?"

"When two people stand under it… They have to kiss."

"Oh."

They both looked down at the small plant. Standing there with their faces glowing red, the two looked up at each other.

Dib then held out his hand towards the alien.

"We don't have to kiss… We could hold hands instead…"

"…"

"I know… It's stupid. But we have to do something…"

"Okay…"

Dib felt a clawed hand take his and he felt the worst case of butterflies ever. Zim felt the same exact thing.

Though both had been acting reluctant to do this, on the inside they both had a severe case of butterflies and were both saying the same exact thing…

…

_He isn't that bad…_

_--_

_The End._


End file.
